Florida

As Ben mentioned in the previous post, the condo was an excellent relaxation hub. We basically vegged out all week before the tampa game. We played some golf, fixed up the truck a bit, and got to know the pool pretty well.

After catching our breath for a few days, Friday rolled around and that meant our Yankees at Rays game up in Tampa. We drove up to meet a relative of Ben's, Pete. He met us at our hotel an immediately took us out to lunch and we proceeded to discuss all things Tampa.

After lunch pete brought us over to the bar that he actually owned, Doubles. It was a working mans bar, as he put it. I thought it had an excellent atmosphere with a pool table, darts, and tvs a plenty. Pete pointed out some old photos that decorated the place of movie stars like Marilyn Monroe and Paul Newman and explained that it was ironic that the photos were left over from the previous owners because it was a ruff tough biker bar. Even bikers like movies stars apparently. After a few rounds he hooked us up with some free Doubles t-shirts and took us on a tour of the highlights around St Petersburg (where the stadium is actually located, not Tampa).

We got back the the hotel and turned right around to head to the stadium. It was free t-shirt night and we had already missed out on Houstons tshirt night so we knew we had to get there early. Once we got there, the place had an electric atmosphere. The Rays were only 2 games back of the Yankees for first place of the AL East at the time. ARod was sitting on 599 HRs, Vasquez was throwing for the Yankees and _ was starting for the Rays so it looked to be a pretty good matchup.

Walking up to the stadium the place seemed to be 50-50 Yankees fans to Rays fans. After the game got going it turned out to be more like 70-30 rays to Yankees but they definatly had a presence.

Before the game we walked around the stadium and checked out all the things to do. First we waited to go up to the stingray tank. They have a tank out in right center with 10 to 15 stingrays that you could pet for free and feed for a small fee. After that, near center field, there was the "Ted Williams Hitters Hall of Fame." it seems a little odd that this was here but Ted Williams was a major community contributor in the metro area. I'd have to say that this was one of the coolest things that I've ever seen at a ball park. They had stuff from all decades, teams and events. It wasn't totally dedicated to hitters either. Lots of community service awards and management awards were on display as well. There seemed to be an underlying theme of Red Sox and Yankees though which we thought was cool.

After those things there wasn't much to write home about at the stadium. There was a lot of stuff for kids to do and lots of places with diverse food choices but we just did our usual lap and then found our seats.

It was also Latino night at the park so right behind us was a band of Latino music which played throughout the game. It was extremely loud for us but it made it exciting at the same time.

The game can be summed up by 2 plays. Swisher hit a 1st inning 2 run home run to give the Yankees an early lead and then the Rays took the lead in the 7th with a 3 run home run by Matt Joyce, the Rays right fielder.

After the game there was a free Los Lobos concert which we were allowed down on the field for. We just wanted to go out on the field so we stuck around and watched some of it before heading back to the hotel.

Saturday we drove back and Sunday we headed down to Boca Raton beach for some fun in the sun. Monday we played some more golf before heading to Miami Tuesday for the Marlins game.

The Florida Marlins currently play at the Dolphins stadium but are moving in 2012 to their own. We got there early to get tickets and hopefully check out some of Miami. We went to the pro shop to get tickets and it was all dolphins stuff except for a few sections which were Marlins gear. It was obvious who the money makers were.

After we got tickets we had some time so we drove to Miami beach and got some food then headed back to the stadium.

The marlins match up seemed pretty one sided because Roy Halladay was pitching for the Phillies and the Marlins had a kid who was making his first major league appearance. The game came out just as we thought. Right off in the first inning the Marlins let up a few runs. Then Halladay went to work shutting down the Marlins. He did give up a solo home run to Dan Uggla to left field but that was all for them. The real story of the game was the marlins defense. I'm not sure how many errors they were actually scored but they should have had many more.the center fielder ran back to catch a ball and got turned around so the ball ended up landing right next to him. The third base man had a rough night all night. Uggla booted two easy ground balls. It was just messy.

After the game we headed back up to the condo and got ready to head up to Atlanta the next day.